The present invention relates to a liquid container.
Typically, liquid ejecting apparatuses comprise liquid containers and liquid ejecting heads, ejects liquids fed from the liquid containers through the liquid ejecting heads, eject the liquid to targets facing the corresponding liquid ejecting heads. Examples of such liquid ejecting apparatuses include inkjet recording apparatuses.
An inkjet recording apparatus comprises a carriage, a recording head as a liquid ejecting head mounted on the carriage, and an ink cartridge as a liquid container. By supplying ink to the recording head from the ink cartridge and ejecting the ink from a nozzle formed in the recording head while relatively moving the carriage with respect to a recording medium as a target, the printing is performed on the recording medium.
In order to reduce the load for the carriage or decrease the size or the thickness of the apparatus, there is an inkjet recording apparatus (so-called off carriage type) in which the ink cartridge is not mounted on the carriage. Such an ink cartridge comprises an ink pack for receiving ink and a case for housing the ink pack.
An example of such an ink pack includes the ink pack 50 shown in FIG. 13. The ink pack 50 is formed in a bag shape by thermally welding four sides of two sheets of films 51, 52 to each other. The example of such an ink pack includes the ink pack 53 shown in FIG. 14. The ink pack 53 is formed in a bag shape, for example, by thermally welding the respective sides of four sheets of films 54 to 57 each other (for example, see Patent Document 1). The ink packs 50, 53 have welded portions E at which the respective sides are thermally welded each other, and have a bag shape by the welded portions E.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-238291
However, in the above-mentioned ink packs 50, 53, the welded portions E are protruded outwardly from the bag-shaped portions in which ink is stored. For example in the ink pack 53 formed from four sheets of films 54 to 57, the welded portions E shown by the two-dotted line in FIG. 11 are protruded in a width direction from the bag-shaped portion, and the respective welded portions E are protruded outwardly from a supply port side and a bottom portion side. For this reason, the length, the width, or the height of the ink pack is increased, and as a result, it may be necessary to secure a space for housing the welded portions E in the case. Alternatively, the ink storing volume may be reduced due to the restriction in the size of the case itself. Recently, since decrease in size of ink cartridges has been required to accommodate decreasing size of apparatuses, it is necessary to decrease the size of the cases while increasing the ink volume of the ink cartridges.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a liquid container capable of enhancing the ratio of a case occupied by the liquid volume.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a liquid storing bag capable of being decreased in size without decreasing the volume of a stored liquid, a liquid container for housing the liquid storing bag, and a method of manufacturing the liquid storing bag.